Based on North Brunswick Street in Dublin 7, the building was previously the Richmond Hospital until 1987, before being used for District Court sittings. It was acquired by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) in 2014, refurbished and formally opened as the Richmond Education and Event Centre in 2018. The redeveloped Richmond was shortlisted as a finalist in the Irish Construction Excellence Awards and now operates as a centre of excellence for the delivery of education courses to nurses and midwives, and in addition, the venue offers a number of rooms which can be rented for social events, small conferences and meetings.
The event was well attended by local authority staff and others from across the Republic of Ireland’s three regions. Amidst a very positive atmosphere on the day, aided by the sun and ample natural light filling the beautiful venue, the information session got underway in the late morning following some light networking and refreshments during registration.
Bernie Roe, Assistant Director at the EMRA welcomed guests, provided an overview of the day’s agenda, as well as the importance of the EUI-URBACT Contact Point role for EMRA given it marries both the planning and EU cooperation functions of the organisation. She encouraged attendees to get involved, before passing over to David Murray, Planning Advisor at the Department of Housing, Local Government, and Heritage (DHLGH). David spoke briefly about the EU Agenda for Cities, the DHLGH’s support for an integrated plan-led approach to growth, and for our local authorities to develop capacity and find new solutions to their urban challenges. David concluded by giving an update on Ireland’s preparation for the EU Council Presidency in semester 2, and the DHLGH’s role as the ministry responsible for urban and territorial cohesion policy.
Before lunch there were presentations on the EUI's Capacity Building offer by Karl Murphy, UCP, as well as the new EUI Innovative Actions call 4 from Kathleen McCarron of the EUI's Permanent Secretariat. Participants also heard from Aoife Lawler, Senior Executive Officer (Housing) at Fingal CoCo who participated in both an EUI City to City Exchange and EUI Peer Reviews. Karl and Aoife took questions before attendees broke away for lunch.
Before breaking for lunch, Laure Antoniotti introduced a short video which has been developed over the past year, focusing on the URBACT and EUI offer, as well as a glimpse of EMRA’s work as Contact Point for these programmes with local authorities across the three regions. The video was warmly received, and you can view this here.
After lunch, the URBACT segment of the day got underway. Karl Murphy (below), National URBACT Point for Ireland gave details of the brand-new URBACT call for Action Networks (open until June 17). The new call sees a greater emphasis on implementation and the move from plans and strategy to putting these into action via local pilots. 50% of the budget is available for these testing actions, and approaches to implementation will continue to be influenced and improved by each project’s transnational partners, with strong participation of local stakeholders mandatory as always when it comes to URBACT!
After Karl’s presentation, attendees heard inspiring URBACT testimonials from Kitty Foyle, Senior Executive Officer (Environment) at Meath County Council and Colin Doyle, Senior Community and Social Development Officer at Dublin City Council.
Kitty (below) whose In4Green network (focused on the green and sustainable transition in the town of Navan) concluded in December 2025 spoke glowingly of the value of URBACT in “pull[ing] everyone into the same room, looking in the same direction”. She spoke of the great structure and tools that URBACT participation provides, including impactful testing actions, a governance model that works and clarity on priorities.
Colin (below), whose project CITI4UD is only at the beginning spoke very encouragingly of his first expressions on the utility of the project. It has great potential in generating stronger community bonds and in encouraging inclusive participation in pursuit of public space enhancement and greater economic opportunity for Bluebell, South Dublin (the project’s location focus).
Following Kitty’s and Colin’s lively testimonials, they were joined by Karl as part of a panel, taking questions from a curious audience.
The day concluded with some thank-you notes from Bernie Roe before the team stayed on to take questions on a bilateral basis from interested prospective applicants.
A huge thank you again to all our speakers: Bernie, David, Kitty, Colin, Kathleen and Aoife, and a special thank you to all our attendees for what was a positive day of information exchange and networking.
You can find all resources from the day at the event page (see left panel) and you can view the gallery of photographs at this link.